English Abstract The aim of this project was to develop an ICP-MS method
for the determination of rare earth elements (REE) in order to investigate
the REE content of Dutch surface, ground- and drinking water. Only Sc, Y,
La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm and Eu were investigated. When the instrumental
variables were optimized for minimum oxide levels, performance
characteristics were following: -the detection limit was 1 mug/l for Sc, 200
ng/l for La and 50 ng/l for the other Ree (3s; n=25) ; - the calibration
curve was linear up to at leat 20 mug/l ; - the precision amounted to 1.5%
RSD at elevated concentrations. The determination of La was disturbed by
contamination of laboratory glassware and overlap from Ba-138 and La-139
peaks in samples with high Ba content. The determination of Sc was not
possible in ground- and drinking water samples because of variable
background signals and serious Si spectral interferences. Spectral
interferences due to major components in groundwater were negligible (apart
from the interferences mentioned). Matrix effects were reduced or absent
after dilution of the samples to less than 2.5 mM Ca, 2.5 mM Mg, 0.25 mM
Fe and 20 mM Na. The ICP-MS method was applied to the analysis of 60
ground- and drinking water samples from 20 locations in the Netherlands and
on four surface water samples. A quarter of the samples had concentrations
within the working range (50 ng/l - 20 mug/l) ; the other samples had
concentrations below the detection limit.
